Sa'Rayah's loss in The Voice's "Battle Round" apparently turned out to be a tremendous gain.
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Sa'Rayah, 28, was defeated by Aaron Gibson, 25, in their Battle for one spot on Miley Cyrus' team. But even though she lost following the performance of "I'll Take Care Of You," both Alicia Keys and Blake Shelton wanted to steal her for their teams. Sa'Rayah chose to join Alicia's team.
"When Alicia Keys had fought so hard for me in my Blind Audition, I felt like I needed to be with somebody who values me enough to want to work with me that much," Sa'Rayah told Reality TV World on Tuesday.
"So, me having Alicia Keys as a coach now, I do feel like I'm in a place with someone who's ready to work with me and she sees something in me that she wants to keep around."
Miley admitted this Battle resulted in the toughest choice she had to make so far in this round. The coach chose to keep Aaron because he could use more coaching in order to spread his "wings a little bigger," but that meant an established vocalist like Sa'Rayah was in jeopardy of going home.
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"I was a little disappointed at first," Sa'Rayah confessed of Miley's choice and the reasoning behind it.
"But I kind of made up in my mind that, however this is supposed to go, it will. And where I am supposed to land, I will. So at the point where I landed with Alicia Keys, I began to feel like I was where I needed to be. So, I went the route of trying to do something different and trying to take a different route."
When Blake was fighting to steal Sa'Rayah, he insisted she had won her Battle "hands down," and Alicia agreed the artist had been incredibly fierce.
In a similar situation, Miley chose to advance Darby Walker from the "Battle Round" instead of Karlee Metzger, saying that she loved Darby's personality and ability to entertain -- although Miley and the other coaches agreed Karlee had delivered the stronger vocal.
So when asked whether she feels Miley made elimination decisions based on personal connections rather than the pursuit of finding "The Voice," Sa'Rayah told Reality TV World, "Well, personally, I do think that it's a matter of preference, honestly, that causes them to determine who they want to keep around on their team."
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Sa'Rayah continued, "Because like you just stated, for some, it's like, 'I can coach this person more,' and for the other, it's the entire opposite. The other reason why she chose Karlee was the entire opposite from why she chose Aaron over me."
Sa'Rayah said another likely factor in Miley's thought process is a need to balance out her team.
"If they already have something similar to one person, then they are most likely to choose somebody else if it's something that suits them as to what's next," Sa'Rayah explained.
"And I don't know, I feel like it does have a lot to do with -- you know, in my case, I had been feeling the entire time it was like she probably felt she couldn't teach me much. And so, she wanted to go with somebody that she could groom and she could put her work into."
Sa'Rayah said Miley's choice therefore makes sense and is "understandable."
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"But I do feel like -- not that it's unfair, but I do feel like it's a matter of preference. It's strictly a matter of preference and what they desire to keep on their team," the singer noted.
The final part of The Voice's "Battle Round" airs Tuesday night at 8PM ET/PT on NBC.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski